The business papers are full today of the announcement that Harley is going to start
selling motorcycles in India, starting next year.
I hope I'm wrong about this, because I'm generally a big fan of both H-D and India, but I think this is going to be a major disappointment. Look at all the things they are doing wrong:
1) India imposes tariffs and penalties on imported motorcycles that add more than
90% to the cost of the bike. Rather than wait, and let our Government negotiate a better trade deal that would have eliminated or reduced that tariff, they are going ahead. With the result that Harley will forever be known in India as the motorcycle that costs $35,000 - about a hundred years pay for an average Indian.
2) I don't know if Matt Levatich has ever been to India, or actually driven in any Indian cities or highways. But I cannot imagine a worse place to try to operate a bike like current Harley-Davidsons. Most Indian roads are potholed, unbelievably crowded, and dangerous beyond belief. And thats for people in a car.
3) I also don't know that Harley is the right fit for India's growing middle class. An affluent Indian with an extra $40,000 in his pocket has no interest whatsoever on hopping on a motorcycle so he can literally rub shoulders with the rest of the 950 million people he's worked so hard to move up from. He'll take a nice airconditioned BMW or Toyota, thank you very much.
4) Speaking of climate, India has two seasons - a dry season when it regularly hits 115 F in the shade - of which there isn't much. And a monsoon, where it regularly rains up to 30
feet of precipitation a year.
If Harley's vaunted new management were smart, they would
a) Set up an Indian manufacturing operation, where they could assemble a version of the Sportster, localized for Indian conditions.
b) By doing this, they could avoid the 90% tariff.
c) And play up Indian's well-deserved pride in their own country.
d) Make a virtue of the Sportster's relative simplicity and ruggedness. Bring back a version of the old Harley Servicar, etc.
MoCo heads to India 
Re: MoCo heads to India 
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